Sandgren hooks the reader with an absorbing, multilayered plot that shifts between past and present, building slowly towards the emotional and narrative mystery at its heart.” Thrilling, brilliant and immense in the best possible way… teeming with ideas and digressions on literature, art, history and love’ Francesca Reece, author of Voyeur Met nog meer memorabele anekdotes, meer humor en de vinger wat vaker op de deleteknop had Sandgren een waar meesterwerk kunnen beitelen uit dit veelbelovende debuut. Niettemin is ‘Verzamelde werken’ zo’n boek waarvan de personages je vrienden lijken te worden, zo’n boek dat de omgeving doet vervagen, zodat je al lezende de tram mist of tegen een paal aan loopt. Wedden dat er over twintig jaar debuten verschijnen met een wikkel waarop staat: ‘De nieuwe Lydia Sandgren is geboren.’? Collected Works long feels like it must be working up to a clarifying reveal -- presumably involving some resolution with or regarding Cecilia. She translated Wittgenstein's diaries, and published two books of her own before she disappeared (more than Martin ...).

Family hemmed in individuals through arbitrary prohibitions and rules that had to be followed, not for any rational reason, but simply because that's how it was done, which was completely unintellectual. Boken utstrålar skrivarglädje, även om den är väldigt välskriven har den lite roliga inslag där författaren lekt med texten och hittat på roliga saker, skrivit upprepande eller annat. Det gör att den aldrig känns långrandig. Collected Works] has flavours of the realism of her countryman, Karl Ove Knausgard, more than a hint of emotional American big hitters like Jeffrey Eugenides or Jonathan Franzen, and something of the twists and turns of a chronicle like War and Peace." Collected Works stretches over a 30-year time period and appears as a filigree tale with luminous characters. Through the novel Lydia Sandgren expresses an homage to the love of literature, art and philosophy.”A witty, toothy, family saga, unashamedly intellectual . . . that, like youth, seems to have it all—energy, aspiration, and self-delusion." — Catherine Taylor, Financial Times The present-day finds Martin's two children increasingly independent but still struggling to find their way, Gustav seemingly more or less unchanged, despite the great success he's had, and Martin wondering where it all went -- the years, his writerly ambitions, and, yes, his wife.

The novel rambles along agreeably enough with its cast of quite interesting characters, for the most part contrasting past and present in an intriguing fashion.Compelling, tense and moving – I loved this smart and subtle exploration of modern motherhood and womanhood.” Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South. Collected Works is a dramturgical masterpiece and as groundbreaking as any Donna Tartt novel. (…) If I’m to make further comparisons I have to bring out phenomenal storytellers like Klas Östergren and Kjell Westö.” The following is from Lydia Sandgren's debut novel Collected Works . Sandgren is a trained psychologist and lives in Gothenburg, Sweden. A compelling mystery, a poignant bildungsroman, and a work of great nostalgia for times just past, COLLECTED WORKS is a novel about love, power and art—and what leads us to make the pivotal decisions that change the course of our lives.

Eleven!” Mimmi said and pulled on him to make him move. “What’s the matter with you? It’s not one of the buildings sinking into the mud, is it?” Cecilia's life certainly seems more interesting than Martin's -- even before she left (and at least there are some glimpses of some of her formative experiences) -- but Martin's story is an often entertaining one, complete with year-abroad in France in his youth (with Gustav) and a variety of interesting experiences. Collected Works, like the recent excellent adaptation of Fleishman is in Trouble, is a study in how we make assumptions about those around us (and in our reading experiences), particularly when it comes to divorce or a separation. At the beginning, it is easy to side with Martin, who has been left to raise Cecilia’s and his three children single-handedly. But things are rarely so certain, and Sandgren has constructed a novel of deep suspicion, to the point at which we question our own capacity to ask the right question. If we are shown, for instance, a flawed version of Martin, we are not left to think that Cecilia herself is a victim in some way – she, too, is complex and difficult at times. Sandgren makes wry allusions to this construct, as when Frederikke, a therapist, discusses narratives which, when disrupted, cause chaos: “If your narrative deviates too far from reality, if it’s built on fundamental misconceptions and grave misinterpretations, then the narrative can be a problem in itself, of course. And yet, it may be that that particular construct is what makes life possible in that moment.” Poised at the intersection of life and art, reality and imagination, [ Collected Works] blends the thrill of mystery with the curiosity and depth of philosophical inquiry.”— The New Yorker

A] sweeping and complex drama of family, art, and sacrifice...Readers will be captivated." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Op het tweede vertelspoor worden Martins kinderen door een toeval aangemoedigd op zoek te gaan naar een antwoord op de vraag waarom hun moeder Cecilia onverwacht haar gezin in de steek liet. De spanning wordt opgedreven: de eerste tijdlijn haalt de andere langzamerhand in en de enigmatische verdwijning van Cecilia blijft lang flikkeren, als een waakvlam die pas heel laat echt ontbrandt.